Two women wearing only red panties and spiked heels and two male “cupids” wearing only red boxer shorts and a pair of wings – led a protest held jointly by PETA and Irish group Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day in Dublin
Photo by: blog.peta.org.uk

Ireland's Eye: What's going on in the old sod this week

Two women wearing only red panties and spiked heels and two male “cupids” wearing only red boxer shorts and a pair of wings – led a protest held jointly by PETA and Irish group Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) on the eve of St. Valentine’s Day in Dublin
Photo by: blog.peta.org.uk

House Bulldozing

LOCAL historian and author Donal O Riain and his wife, Alice, who have lived for almost 50 years in Parteen, only discovered at a recent public information meeting that four lanes of phase two of the Northern Distributor Road are set to go through their four-bedroom home, Tuairín na Molt at Ballykeelaun.

While aware they could be living near the new motorway, which will split Parteen village in two, the couple insist Clare County Council provided no prior warning or indication it would result in the loss of their home, before they attended the consultation meeting in the Radisson Hotel in Limerick.

Their distress about losing their home coincides with a warning from Clare Deputy Timmy Dooley about the “limbo” facing at least 25 farmers and three householders facing the prospect of losing their homes, and other landowners losing parts of the curtilage of their properties.
Once the preferred route is earmarked for individual land and properties, Dooley warned it would present major restrictions on proposed future developments and could effectively sterilize properties.

If a farm is split in two, Dooley pointed out, the farmer will not be able to plan for the future or consider handing it over to a family member because of the uncertainty surrounding the possible purchase of the land, and if the Government will be able to secure enough money to build this motorway.

“A landowner will not be able to sell this land on the open market because it will be ‘worthless’ pending a funding decision on the road, which could take over 10 years. Landowners will be left with an impending loss hanging over them,” Dooley said.

“It would be far better if the Government could make an offer to buy a person’s land within two years of route selection, which would at least give people the opportunity to buy land elsewhere, if they wished, and move on.”

Ó Riain said no money would compensate them for losing their family home, which he built through direct labor with the help of family and friends back in 1964.

“I am not interested in compensation. I want to remain in my home and hopefully this road will never happen. We have spent a lot of money renovating this house in recent years and had no plans to move for the rest of our lives,” he said.

“This house has a lot of happy memories for us having raised five children. It is still very much a family home, as our children and grandchildren visit regularly, particularly during the summer time,” he said.

“When I built this house, I never expected in my wildest dreams four lanes of a road would go through it almost 50 years later,” he said.

A DONEGAL woman and her partner are considering the option of assisted suicide to end her suffering from the worsening effects of Multiple Sclerosis.

Marie Fleming, 59, who lives in Arklow, Co. Wicklow, says she wants to die if her condition deteriorates further. And her partner of 20 years, Tom Curran, said he will help her end her life.

“I love Marie, and part of that love says to me it’s her right to have the option to die, and if nobody else is prepared to give her that option then my love for her means I have that job to do,” said

Curran who is coordinator with the pro-euthanasia group Exit International.

Donegal based suicide counselor Father James Sweeney said he would not be encouraging anyone to go down the road of assisted suicide.

Describing it as a “very complex and delicate” area, he said such a move could “easily open the floodgates” where people with severe health difficulties were concerned.

“It could establish a precedent where people with, say, painful bowel cancer could opt for taking their own life,” he said.

Donegal Democrat

Living on Nothing

A DUBLIN mother who has suffered three strokes broke down in tears as she asked, "Does the state just want me to die?"

Marie Butler, 58, from West Dublin claims she has waited over a year to receive her first disability allowance and is "frightened, frozen and hungry" in her own home.

The mother of one has been out of work for several months, having suffered her third stroke in July.
She has poor movement in the right side of her face and is unable to lift things due to a lack of strength in her fingers and arms.